


Chickadee

by cicada9603



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Childhood Friends, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 18:07:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29282724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cicada9603/pseuds/cicada9603
Summary: "Have you seen that, Ivan?  I am the eagle, the master of the world, and I will take wing and fly!"
Relationships: Prussia/Russia (Hetalia)
Kudos: 2





	Chickadee

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [山雀](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29255562) by [cicada9603](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cicada9603/pseuds/cicada9603). 



> Hi! It's my second translation work, also from my original Chinese version~
> 
> Hope you enjoy it!  
> Comments are welcomed and please let me know whether you have any questions~

"Ivan!"

A voice that didn't sound very inviting rang out from above the boy's head and the child named 'Ivan' looked up as the owner of the voice sat high up in the treetops eating an apple. Ivan frowned, not really wanting to see that boy at this time of day, the last outburst between them had not been resolved and the child had no intention of forgiving the culprit in the tree. Yet he came running to him again after sulking for two or three days as if he had left that behind him long ago.

"Gilbert, why are you here again?" Ivan's words were full of displeasure, not dropping his head as he would have liked to do, and he could only blame Gilbert's bare feet for being too brightly lit by the sun. His friend, barely able to count that way, disappeared from among the in a minute.

That was before he got close to the tree, and in any case Ivan didn't want to pay any attention to the rather oddly behaved friend as he continued on his way, before being intercepted by a thin rustling sound. A fluffy silvery-white head dangled upside down from the cascading canopy again, hanging right in front of Ivan and forcing him to stop. Ivan jumped in place in shock and cursed when he saw it was a gloating Gilbert, "Damn it! What the hell are you doing here!"

The boy looked as if he had grown out of a tree, hanging upside down and not forgetting to nibble on the apple in his mouth, chewing it in three or five bites before throwing the core on the ground next to him, which Ivan managed to avoid, staring grimly at Gilbert. Gilbert had been born oddly, perhaps with some disease, his skin was white and bloodless, everything was like the thickest layer of snow, his hair was snow, his eyelashes were snow, even the tiny hairs on his chin were snow, covering up all the filth. One pair of eyes was the most prominent colour of the man, and Ivan's body leaned forward, he had been somewhat concerned since long ago.

"Ivan!" Gilbert called out to him again, trying to pull Ivan back from his selfish thoughts, but that didn't seem to do much good, and our boy continued to check out his friend intently. They came close enough that Ivan bent over, blocking out the pale light that shone on Gilbert, the other boy's short hair rushing against the flourishing earth, his eyelids blinking twice and trembling slightly.

Light blue, pink, red, a different sheen refracted from one pair of eyes that Ivan couldn't put a complete finger on, and until they grew into adulthood, Vanya still held doubts and disbeliefs about it.

"You're like a rabbit." He murmured, but Gilbert overheard him, and his two white, somewhat transparent eyebrows furrowed in displeasure.

"I'm not a rabbit! I'm an eagle! I'll scare out of your wits!" Gilbert yelled, curling himself upwards and sitting back down on top of the treetop where he had just been, and Ivan had to look up at him again. He didn't like that, Gilbert always looked like he was born to be superior to him, and Vanya hated it. But he couldn't help looking up at the boy again, his neck was stretched to the point of being sore, and Gilbert hadn't even looked down at him seriously yet. I wanted to tell him to bow his head, Ivan thought indignantly, to make him lie down at his feet and beg for mercy, to make him kiss the back of his hand, but that was all just a bit of sense that Vanya had lost when he was jealous, his fists clenched a little tighter, his nails stinging his palms. But Gilbert knew nothing, he came to Ivan day after day, bullying him most of the time, pushing him to the ground, soiling his newly made clothes, but also knitting him some useless garlands, lying that he had picked them up on the way there.

Ivan stared intently into those eyes that seemed as if sorrow could not even invade them, looked in the sunlight as multi-layered red leaves, gentle, pleasant, soft, everything that Ivan's little head could think of that was warm. Rotten porridge and women's breasts, milk and streams soaked with fallen flowers, and two red beads set in Gilbert's white face.

"Look at me well," Gilbert suddenly drew up his voice, and for the first time he lowered his head and the blazing sun shone straight into Ivan's eyes, "I am the eagle! Ivan, I want you to see how I soar in this world!"

He was a chickadee, he was an eagle, and as Gilbert flew down from the treetops Ivan stretched out his arms and the bird, the bird of freedom, pierced through the warm spring air and roared towards the ground.

The explosion was an opening of the sky, and the fire rose up to stain the distant layer of clouds, and the waves of the sea, and the scent of pine, and the plates of the earth's crust loosened and squeezed, and the mountains crumbled and crumbled, and it was as if a pair of equally white wings stretched out behind Gilbert's back in knots, and he glided downwards against the towering trunks of the trees, and descended from the sky.

Ivan's mouth grew dry, he could not say anything, the mountains changed, the sun and the moon shifted, the stream of wind through the trees made a ringing sound that could not squeeze a single bubble out of his throat, like a goldfish leaving the water to swim into the air, like tumbling inside a sticky porridge, he could only maintain that one gesture of an outstretched hand. Those red eyes, eternally unchanging, like the blood amber stared at him, to pull Ivan into his world. Gilbert, Gilbert as a child, his voice clear and loud: "Have you seen that, Ivan? --

\-- I am the eagle, the master of the world, and I will take wing and fly!" It was the same smile, cocky and free, and as they all moved away from their boyish appearance to the posture of adult humans, Gilbert's features still overlapped with the old. Ivan was finally able to touch that face, and even though they were both covered in blood, the chickadee continued to leap lightly between the canopy of trees.

Then he landed on the ground.


End file.
